Blaine had approximately one friend. A girl, Jenna, who lives in his neighborhood, who goes to the private girls school the next town over and doesn’t really know anything about the way Blaine is treated in school.

Even at 13, Blaine knows he doesn’t really like girls the way he’s supposed to. The way men are supposed to feel about women. But he loves talking to Jenna. She listens and she’s smart and sometimes he lets pieces of himself, his real self, slip out.

He mentions to her one day, in passing, in a way that he wants to be perceived as casual, that he has a crush on someone. He lets her weasel it out of him, and when she finds out that it’s the boy who sits next to him in math class, her eyes won’t meet his anymore.

“Blaine, it’s not that I don’t want to be friends with you anymore, but that’s weird. My mom would be pissed if she knew I was friends with a homo.”

Blaine walks home, ignoring the tears on his face. He just wanted someone to know.